Which DAC is comparable with £1k CD player?

[madeinstein]

If you get £1k+ speakers (PMC GB1i) and Amplifier (Arcam A38, Primare I30, Naim Nait 5i) and then you've decided that you don't want to buy CD player but you prefer to store your music on NAS and use on the of the IT solutions (Squeezebox, Sonos, Apple Airport) to stream it to your system which DAC would be comparable with £1k CD player?

 

[cse]

I would love to know the answer to this as well!!!

 

[Anonymous]

A Cyrus DAC-X would slot nicely in that system you;ve mentioned. I think it's £1.1k new, but ex-dem/2nd hand is £600, and would provide a sound better than most £1k players (WHF gave it 5* with it's dedicated transport costing £2k so that should give you an idea of performance level at this price point).

 

[madeinstein]

Thanks thfcwestlower, so I would have to spend around £1k on DAC to get a decent sound.

I was wondering if Linn DS prices are justified when you compare them to much cheaper DAC's available.

 

[Anonymous]

I was thinking of the cyrus too. Use the rule of thumb about spending around the same amount on all components. Although I saw the cyrus for 1.2k, maybe a dac for 600-1000 would be the same sort of quality as a 1k CD as its just the DAC rather than all the other components too. Sound wise I always think a dedicated DAC performs better than CD players in its price bracket.

 

[John Duncan]

madeinstein:so I would have to spend around £1k on DAC to get a decent sound

I don't think so, no. Am still umming over which DAC to buy but bearing in mind how close Airport Express and my 800 quid CD player are (once I worked out that iTunes had the treble turned down!), I'm hoping to match it for 200 quid. Am thinking Beresford or Moodlab Dice.

Fr0g's your man though - he just bought a Harmony, which is about 500 quid I think.......

 

[Anonymous]

madeinstein:

Thanks thfcwestlower, so I would have to spend around £1k on DAC to get a decent sound.

I didnt mean to give that impression! I just looked at your existing kit and it's rrp and thought that the Cyrus would fit nice in there as it's at a similar price point. You dont have to spend this much for a DAC to be worthwhile, Ive heard great things about the Beresford (c. £100 - and apparantly performs up to £500/600 CDP level by all accounts).

The Cyrus would be a big step up from the Beresford, but then it should as it's far more expensive. That's not to say that you wont get a good sounds spending downwards of £1k on a dedicated offboard DAC.

 

[John Duncan]

Completely without experience of any, I'm kind of getting the impression that a Beresford will beat a 600 quid CD player, a 500 quid Harmony or similar will match a 1500 quid player, and the 1k Benchmark beats all-comers..........

 

[fr0g]

JohnDuncan:Completely without experience of any, I'm kind of getting the impression that a Beresford will beat a 600 quid CD player, a 500 quid Harmony or similar will match a 1500 quid player, and the 1k Benchmark beats all-comers..........

...My local shop that I bought the Harmony from reckoned it was better than the Benchmark. This was a purely subjective customer review, but I have heard the Benchmark is not quite the force it was.

Then there is the Aqvox USB 2, the Stello DACs, the Lavry DA10 and many others.

 

[Anonymous]

JohnDuncan:Completely without experience of any, I'm kind of getting the impression that a Beresford will beat a 600 quid CD player, a 500 quid Harmony or similar will match a 1500 quid player, and the 1k Benchmark beats all-comers..........

Kinda assumes all CDPs at a given price point sound the same, and whilst many are similar, I just don't think you can make generalised statements like this, no offence ;-). Many different cdps at 1K which sound very, very distinct from each other. In fact It seems to me that the DACs from the likes of MF/PS audio/ Cyrus etc sound more similar when using a computer source than their one box counterparts -which to me says that the transports and efficiency of their clocking mechanisms used are making the main differences heard between them.

 

[John Duncan]

JAXON5:JohnDuncan:Completely without experience of any, I'm kind of getting the impression that a Beresford will beat a 600 quid CD player, a 500 quid Harmony or similar will match a 1500 quid player, and the 1k Benchmark beats all-comers..........

Kinda assumes all CDPs at a given price point sound the same, and whilst many are similar, I just don't think you can make generalised statements like this, no offence ;-). Many different cdps at 1K which sound very, very distinct from each other. In fact It seems to me that the DACs from the likes of MF/PS audio/ Cyrus etc sound more similar when using a computer source than their one box counterparts -which to me says that the transports and efficiency of their clocking mechanisms used are making the main differences heard between them.

None taken whatsoever, but I do think that this is the case - that they sound similar at particular price points, at least nowadays. And I should bl--dy well think so too (as expressed elsewhere at length).

 

[Anonymous]

Roksan Caspian M, MF , Primare CD31 - Far bigger differences in sound than MAC + MF X dac or MAC + Ps Audio DAC IMHO. In my experience there are less differences with DAC's at a given price point than one box cdps. I think CDPs in a certain price bracket sound consistently good nowadays like you say, but nowhere near similar enough to discount careful selection a/c to taste of muscical presentation. I'd say it's easier (for me) to select differences a/c to different cdps than DACs at the mo.

 

[madeinstein]

thfcwestlower:madeinstein:

Thanks thfcwestlower, so I would have to spend around £1k on DAC to get a decent sound.

I didnt mean to give that impression! I just looked at your existing kit and it's rrp and thought that the Cyrus would fit nice in there as it's at a similar price point.

Actually it's not my existing kit (yet) but this is what I'm planning to buy and I was actually thinking the same as you meaning that if I spend 2-3k on speakers and Amp (when you sum things up it sounds a lot

) and far less on DAC would I be utilising the rest of my setup?